IDLE MIKES

Evening Star, Issue 19263, 31 May 1926, Page 5

IDLE MIKES

BRITISH GOAL STRIKE WARWICKSHIRE MINERS RESUMING MANY INDUSTRIES CLOSING DOWN. Prost Aisooiation—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, May 30. (Received sfay 31, at 1.30 a.re.) The Warwickshire miners are resuming, and are accepting the owners’ terms of pre-strike wages and an eighthour day.—Sydney ‘ Sun ’ Cable. POSITION REVIEWED UNEMPLOYMENT INCREASING. OTHER INDUSTRIES AFFECTED. LONDON, May 28. Over 1,000,000 miners have been on strike for four weeks to-day. during which time not one hundredweight ot coal has been raised in the entire coalfields of Great Britain. The men are reported to be as determined to-day as they were a month ago. Meantime the stranglehold on the industry is becoming more effective hourly. Works are closing down daily, and the iron and steel industry has been brought to a standstill. The blast furnaces have been blown out. At Clydeside alone more than 18,000 iron and steel workers have been rendered idle, and domestic coal is being most severely rationed over the whole country. The train services are skeletonised, and it is expected that racing will be suspended next week. There will be no special and no excursion trains on Derby Dav. The King and Qixeen will go to Epsom by road. Every day adds thousands to the ranks of the unemployed. Officials are snowed under byapplications for relief by those out of work through the coal strike. _ _ Whole communities in the mining districts are existing on poor relief, and soup kitchens have been established evervwhere. Rents and rates are unpaid, and many tradesmen m the mining districts are putting up their shutters, as they are unable to give further credit. . The greatest efforts are being made to spare the women and children. Funds have been opened, and are being generously supported by the owners. 0 One owner sent a cheque for £IOO. Miss Sybil Thorndike (the noted actress) and others have issued appeals. The miners have received £I.OOO from the Farm Workers’ Union, and many contributions have been received from abroad. Germany sent £5.000, CzerfioBlovakia £I,OOO, Austria, Holland, Belgium, and Jngo-Slavia each several hundred pounds. Strike pay is still being issued, varying from £1 to 6s weekly. A disastrous colliery fire occurred a v Bargood, South Wales. Tbq fusing of an electric wire caused the ignition of naphthalene. The flames lib up the whole vallev. The damage is estimated at from £20,000 to £30,000.—-A. and N.Z. Cable.

COAL FOR INDUSTRIES

LONDON, May 30. (Received May 31, at 1.30 a.m.) The political correspondent of the ‘ Sunday Times ’ _ states that in [the event of the mining deadlock continuing the Government will arrange for the import and distribution of coal for industries now. threatened with paralysis. No is expected from tie Railwaymen’s Union. —Reuter. DETERMINED TO FIGHT. MR COOK INTERVIEWED. LONDON, May 20. Mr A. J. Cook has recovered from the effects of overstrain. In an interview' with the ‘Daily Herald,’ he said: “The longer the Government and the owners resist the fewer mines will lie opened, the immediate consequences of which will be, first, a largo number of miners drawing unemployment insurance benefit; secondly, there will bo a scarcity of coal and a higher price for what is available.” Commenting on the proposals of Mr F. B. \arley, M.P.. he said: “I am sorry that any leader should mislead the Government, the owners, or the public._ It will only prolong the strike. I visited the coalfields and the soup kitchens in South Wales and Somerset, and the only message I got was ‘ No compromise. The miners could not live on the wages dnrinv April; therefore no reduction is possible. The minors are ns much opposed to longer hours as they are to lower pay.”—A. and N.Z. Cable. A ROYAL OWNER. PRINCE OF WALES GIVES DONATION. LONDON, May 30. The Prince of Wales, who is a large coni owner in Somerset, sent ton guineas to the district miners’ wives and children’s fund, accompanied by a letter stating: “ Tlis Royal Highness naturally cannot take sides in any dispute, but. we all owe a debt to the miners for what they have done in the past. Everyone sympathises with their wives and children in their hour of distress. Further, it would ho an undesir able end to any dispate that one side should have to give in on account of the sufferings of their dependents. His Royal Highness is confident that with good-will on either side there will he a happy issue out of the present difficulties.” MINERS FAVOR MR HODGES’S SCHEME. LONDON, May 30. The Sunday papers’ correspondents report that the miners are increasingly tending to favor Mr Frank Hodges’s scheme for longer hours, unreduced pay, and a long peace.—A. and N.Z. Cable. EMERGENCY MEASURES CONTINUED. LONDON, May 29. A Royal proclamation has been gazetted declaring a continuance of the State emergency measures owing to the continued coal stoppage.—Reuter. NORTHUMBERLAND MINERS. LONDON, May 30. The executive of the Northumberland Miners’ Union defeated only by 36 votes to 33 a resolution in favor of the resumption of negotiations for the best possible national settlement based on the Coal Commission’s report. GOVERNMENT CRITICISED. AN OUTSPOKEN EDITORIAL. LONDON, May 30. Mr J. L. Garvin, in an outspoken editorial in the ‘Observer,’ declares; “Procrastination, followed by hurry, blighted throughout the Government’s handling of the coal dispute before the general strike, only a week being allowed for negotiations, and the same thing is being repeated. The Government unnecessarily limited itself to a

further £3,000,000 subsidy. Mr Baldwin, while ho rebuked the owners in scathing words, has so far only attempted real pressure against the miners If the Cmvcinuient can thinW of nothing better than the narrowest interpretation of its formula there ■will be a war of exhaustion, spreading to every trade and costing many tunes £3,000,000, and producing unparalleled social bitterness. If this happens I believe tho nation will not forgive the Government, and Liberal sympathies will swing towards Labor. _ I, here will bo many North Hammersmiths. Ho argues that the schemes ot Mr Yarley and Mr Hodges justify keeping open the door, and expresses the opinion that a legislative seven and a-lialf-hour day. no reduction of wages, and a ballot o‘f the miners would prove the shortest and best way out. Moreover, the Government must pledge itself to carry nut at all costs the Commission’s report in its entirety during the present session.—A. and N./. Cable. FUNDS FROM RUSSIA. MOSCOW, May 30. (Received May 31, at 8.55 a.m.) The official agency announces that the General Council of the Soviet Trade Unions lias transferred a further 403,001) roubles through the British Miners’ Federation, an account ot further collections from Russian workers.- —Reuter.